


since forever

by incensuous



Category: Naruto
Genre: Brother/Sister Incest, Character Death, Cousin Incest, Cousins, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Half-Sibling Incest, Half-Siblings, Happy Ending, Hyuuga Clan-centric, Hyuuga Neji Lives, Incest, NejiHina Week 2020, and then dies of old age lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:08:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28373661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/incensuous/pseuds/incensuous
Summary: It is a quiet morning, Neji notes. The compound should be lively enough at this hour, and yet, there is a strange calmness. Perhaps, the whole Hyuuga clan know of what is to come this day, and they await with bated breath.
Relationships: Hyuuga Hinata/Hyuuga Neji
Comments: 5
Kudos: 19





	since forever

**Author's Note:**

> written for NejiHina week 2020! i've shipped these two since before i knew what shipping was. it's a moral offense i haven't officially written anything for them yet.

_12/18: last kiss/ ~~kiss of life~~_

It is a quiet morning, Neji notes. The compound should be lively enough at this hour, and yet, there is a strange calmness. Perhaps, the whole Hyuuga clan know of what is to come this day, and they await with bated breath. 

“Neji nii-san?” He fixes his soft gaze on Hinata, barely awake in their bed, cracking her eyes open at him. Her silver hair lays in a halo around her face. In the decades after their marriage, she has aged gracefully, and he finds her as beautiful as when he’d first met her. 

She never stopped calling him that, and he never quite had the heart to make her (he didn’t particularly want her to—Hinata did not feel the same way of him referring to her as “Lady”, however). Their children found it endearing enough. He’d never told anyone else how much he loved hearing her call his name, no matter how she said it.

“Darling,” he murmurs, in response, letting her know he is by her side. He settles back down against the pillows, and they turn to face each other.

She reaches out a trembling hand, and he takes it, feeling her thin fingers lace through his. “Thank you,” she says quietly, amidst her unsteady breaths. “For everything. You saved me.” Hinata’s other hand moves to trace over the enormous scar that had mangled his torso, and nearly took him from her too soon. 

“You saved me, Hinata,” he replies, not taking his eyes off hers. “I was lost without you.”

Her thin lips stretch into a smile. He leans over, pressing a kiss to her forehead, then over her eyes, and finally her lips. He lingers, savoring every sensation. 

He thinks of their first kiss, their wedding, their children, their grand and great-grandchildren, every single one with beautiful, naked foreheads. Hinata had given him a life he never dreamed he’d see. 

When he pulls back just enough to separate their faces, he realizes belatedly, a tear had escaped his eyes. “I love you,” he whispers, as if it was the first time he’d said it, as if it wouldn’t be the last time. “Until the end of time, I love you.” 

“I have loved you since forever,” Hinata murmurs, her words halting, but sure and fervent as the day she’d accepted his proposal. “I will find you in the next life, and I will love you then, too.”

Neji feels the moment Hinata’s soul leaves, as if his own breath was stolen from his lungs, and his own heart slowing to a halt. The loneliness swallows him like a storm. He lets out a cry, a noise he didn’t quite think he was capable of, and gathers her close in his arms.

* * *

There is a knock at the door, before it slowly slides open. “Grandmother? Grandfather? It’s time for…”

Hikari had expected this moment, and yet it still had not braced her for the pain. They had known her grandmother had but days left in this world. (And most expected Neji would not last long without her at his side.) Hinata Hyuuga had led a long life, and would leave behind a historic legacy. Hikari had seen firsthand the changes her grandparents had directed to their Clan. 

She weeps silently as she gingerly steps into her grandparents’ bedroom, towards the prone figures, knowing she must confirm what she already knows. She activates her Byakugan; their chakra, normally pulsing forcefully through their bodies, has gone quiet—evaporated back into the energy of the universe. 

Hikari finds herself smiling in spite of it. They look beautiful, even in death. Their long hair surrounds them in their bed, as they hold onto each other, as she’d always remembered them. Hyuuga elders were often said to be cold, distant, detached. Her grandparents, instead, were famously known to be in love. 

She wipes the tears from her face, leaves and alerts the nearest Clan member to tell the Elders. 

“Our Hyuuga leader, along with her beloved husband, has joined our ancestors in eternal peace.”

Her relative bows his head and darts away. By the time she makes her way to the gardens, she hears the bells she had feared as a child—the ones signifying loss, grieving, death. They rang for each Hyuuga lost. Today, they ring twice as long. Hikari has always thought the sound was painful, and had assumed this time would hurt even more. Yet, she finds a peacefulness in the bells this morning. 

A movement catches her eye, and she watches a pair of birds soar overhead. 

She smiles, under the warmth of the morning sun. “Now, they will never be apart again.”


End file.
